[off-topic] Sony releases PS Vita SDK

[Sean Kelly]

On Apr 20, 2012, at 1:18 PM, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 07:24:48PM -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>> "Sean Kelly" <sean at invisibleduck.org> wrote in message 
>> news:mailman.1942.1334874732.4860.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
>>> On Apr 19, 2012, at 3:20 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> [...]
>>>> Yea, pretty much. With a few exceptions (Splinter Cell 1 though...3
>>>> or 4, and some Japanese stuff), I see the mainstream industry as
>>>> mostly a "Pixar-wannabe high-def-animation factory" these days.
>>>> They don't care about gameplay anymore, just storytelling,
>>>> animation and emulating Hollywood.
>>> 
>>> I've switched from calling those games to calling them interactive
>>> cinematic experiences.  Some are actually enjoyable from a story
>>> perspective, but overall I think they're an evolutionary dead end for
>>> the game industry.=
> 
> Wasn't that all the hype in the early days where games like that were
> called "interactive movies"? I remember Wing Commander was one of those
> (or at least, it tried to be). But at least there was actual *gameplay*
> going on in WC (you actually get to fly a spaceship and shoot enemies
> down), as opposed to just point-and-click, choose-your-own-story,
> see-how-many-permutations-of-the-same-old-video-clips-you-can-get.

I don't see many parallels between Wing Commander and modern cinematic games.  WC was really a campaign-oriented space combat game, while in modern cinematic games the gameplay feels bolted on as an afterthought.  The difference in Wing Commander was that the game had RPG elements as well, so there was a lot more up-front story than most other campaign-oriented games.  Actually, Jagged Alliance was one of the best games in this vein, as the depth of simulation was really staggering even by today's standards.